By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Monday urged the states to go for early sowing of the winter rabi crop to maximise yield by making the best use of available soil moisture.
“The states should go for early sowing of rabi crops, especially in rainfed areas…this will help in using the moisture available in the soil due to wide-spread rains in August and September,” said Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the two-day National Conference on Agriculture For Rabi Campaign 2012 here.
Pawar expressed hope that with concerted efforts, it would be possible to compensate for the production loss suffered in summer kharif crop due to erratic rainfall. “The foodgrain target for 2012-13 is 249.52 million tonnes. There is no reason why we can’t achieve it,” he said.
The conference will come out with a detailed strategy for the coming rabi season, said officials adding the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) has come out with crop and area-specific recommendations for wheat and other winter crops.
Special attention will be paid to maximising production of oilseeds and pulses, they said. The states attending the meet are Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Delhi.